Virginia Tech Will Host Richmond In Opening Round of NIT

For the second-straight year, the Virginia Tech Men's Basketball team will compete in the NIT with the Hokies hosting this time as they take on fellow in-state program and co-Atlantic 10 regular season champion Richmond in the opening round.

The Hokies will face the Spiders on Tuesday, March 19th at 9pm in Cassell Coliseum with the game being televised on ESPN2. The Hokies are the three seed in this NIT region with Wake Forest being the top seed. The winner of VT-UR will face the winner of two seed Ohio State against Cornell.

Obviously, there is a little disappointment given how the standards have been raised for Virginia Tech in men's basketball given the programs that Buzz Williams and Mike Young have led.

However, the Hokies now have a chance to finish their season on a better note than their early exit from the ACC Tournament gave them, starting with a home game against a good Richmond team that split the regular season Atlantic 10 title with Loyola-Chicago this year. This is a fun, in-state matchup as well that should produce a compelling game, with the NIT deserving credit for putting this game together.

Additionally, this gives Hunter Cattoor, Robbie Beran, and Mekhi Long (if he's healthy) one more chance to play college basketball before either pursuing professional basketball careers or moving on to whatever's next. Credit to Mike Young and any team playing in the NIT for doing that, especially after some chose not to give their teams a chance to compete (Pittsburgh, Oklahoma, St John's, Ole Miss, Memphis, and Indiana).

We will have more as this story develops.